


Normal Unknown

by the_authors_exploits



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Cuddling, Fluff, ish, sleeping
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-20
Updated: 2014-06-20
Packaged: 2018-02-05 12:52:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 966
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1819144
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_authors_exploits/pseuds/the_authors_exploits
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lucy wakes up to an unexpected discovery; sometimes the depth of friendships can be hard to see.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Normal Unknown

Lucy awoke slowly to the warm morning sun. There was dew on the ground and Happy was curled contentedly against the lady mage’s side. Lucy rolled away from the cat and stretched her body languidly, relaxing once more to stare up at the soft blue sky.

How she came to be sleeping on the forest floor was rather simple. She, Gray, Natsu, and Happy had taken a mission a good four days (on foot) travel from the guild. Just a simple bandit problem that was easily taken care of, but due to Natsu’s refusal to travel by train they were to be found traipsing through the forest.

Not that Lucy minded too much, the scenery was great, it was the lack of civilized living that she didn’t like. She stood up slowly, stretching more as she went. The ground was hard and it made her joints ache. When she finished waking up, she figured she should start breakfast. The packs were over near where Gray had laid down for the night so she headed towards him to get the food. She didn’t get more than half way across the camp before she was brought to a stop.

The sight that met her was bizarre and she thought she may still be sleeping; she had to be dreaming. There was no way longtime rivals who could never speak to each other without starting a fight, were currently laying in each other’s arms. Both were contentedly snoring softly, the salamander’s arm wrapped securely around the ice mage’s chest (bare chest, Lucy noted; he must have stripped off his shirt sometime during the night). Gray was lying on his back, head turned towards the other, while Natsu was on his side. His left arm was over the dark haired boy’s chest and tucked under his companion’s arm; Natsu had his head was pillowed on his right arm. Gray’s chest rose and fell evenly, Natsu’s arm moving with each breath.

Lucy was frozen in place. What should she do with such a situation? Should she go back to sleep and wait for them to wake up first? Make breakfast and ignore them? Before she could decide her eyes locked with the black eyes of the fire mage. She jumped.

“N-Natsu!” She gulped when he made no reaction, just kept staring at her with a closed off expression. “I…I’m sorry, I didn’t think I would wake you…” When he still made no move or motion to speak, she kept on talking. Curse her nerves. “I always thought you were a heavy sleeper, I didn’t think me just standing here would wake you up.”

That elicited a smirk out of the dragon boy and he closed his eyes, nuzzling against Gray’s side. “Most people think I’m a heavy sleeper; it’s actually this block of ice that’s the heavy sleeper.” He once more nudged his sleeping partner.

There was a stretch of silence that followed this statement where Lucy just watched the pair. Natsu didn’t seem to care that she was seeing them in such a vulnerable position; he merrily pulled Gray closer when the ice mage murmured in his sleep. Lucy was bursting with questions.

“Isn’t he too warm?” At Natsu’s dumb look, she clarified. “I mean, he’s always complaining that he’s too warm and stripping his clothes… So he’s used to cold, while you’re always warm, and…” She vaguely waved a hand at the pair.

Natsu shrugged and began to roll away from the ice mage, tugging his arm free to stand up. As Natsu left, Gray turned to lie in the warm vacated spot left behind. Lucy was still stunned by the pair. Natsu pulled his arm behind his head and stretched lazily before turning to the packs and searching through them.

“Alrighty, Lucy, aren’t you gonna make breakfast?”

“Oh, uh, yeah…” Lucy started up some sausage over the fire Natsu had so generously started. Happy joined her when Natsu left to wash up at the river and after exchanging pleasantries, merrily stared at her with a goofy grin on his cute cat face. Lucy couldn’t take it anymore. “What?”

“They always do that.”

“What are you talking about, Happy?”

The cat motioned towards the still sleeping Gray. “They sleep together a lot, believe it or not.”

Lucy observed as Natsu returned from the river and knelt by their companion, brushed some hair from Gray’s face, and began to shake him awake. “They do? But I thought…”

“They hate each other? Not really.” Happy grinned. “It’s more that they care about each other so much it makes them fight so much.”

Lucy frowned, still not completely convinced this wasn’t a dream. “But they always fight…”

“Hmm, it’s like this! If you love and care about someone, you want them at their best, especially if they’re taking dangerous missions from the guild.”

“So they’re fighting is more to test each other?”

Happy nodded.

Lucy watched the pair of opposite mages start up bickering near the travel packs; Gray was rubbing at his eyes, still a bit sleepy, while Natsu searched for a shirt for the stripper. What their new fight was about, she didnt know but she began to notice little things she hadn’t recognized before. Like the way Natsu would glance at Gray from the corner of his eye after a particularly sharp barb, as if to make sure his friend knew the words were false; or how Gray trusted Natsu to rummage through his bag, his clothes, his personal things; or when Natsu’s lips would try to tug into a smile when their hands would brush. She was always learning new things about her friends.

Lucy gave the pair a bright smile as they approached; this was a new day with new information to learn. She couldn’t wait.


End file.
